and is exalted: none of His attributes resembles the attributes of created beings, just as His Essence does not resemble their essences. Allah, exalted is He, says: “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” [al-Shura 42:11]
This was the way of the Salaf of this Ummah and the scholars of the Sunnah: they all received these attributes with faith and acceptance, avoided likening and figurative reinterpretation in regard to them, and consigned knowledge of their true nature to Allah.” End quote. He then cites statements of the Salaf in support of this. (1) The testimonies of the scholars who wrote his biography likewise confirm this.
Ibn Shahbah said in The Biographical Classes of the Shafiʿis (1/310): “He was devout, learned, and practiced what he knew, upon the way of the Salaf.”
Tashköprüzade said in The Key to Happiness (2/102): “He was reliable, an authority, and sound in creed and religion.”
His Qualities and the Scholars’ Praise for Him
Imam al-Baghawi, may Allah have mercy on him, possessed qualities and merits that greatly contributed to his being given the title “Reviver of the Sunnah,” “the Imam,” and other descriptions affirmed by everyone who wrote his biography. He was an imam in the Book of Allah Most High and in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him; and an imam in the school of law in which he was raised—the Shafiʿi school—by virtue of the environment in which he grew up and the scholars from whom he studied. Yet he did not show partisan attachment to his imam; rather, he followed the evidence, examining the views of the scholars and their proofs. He called people to hold fast to the Book of Allah Most High and the Sunnah of His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, for these two are the foundation and mainstay of the religion, and every matter of sacred law proceeds from them. This is the way of those scholars who upheld this religion with clear insight.
Al-Dhahabi said in The Lives of the Noble Figures: “Al-Baghawi was known as the Reviver of the Sunnah and the Pillar of the Religion. He was a master, an imam, a scholar of outstanding learning, an ascetic, and content with little.”
Al-Suyuti said in The Biographical Classes of Hadith Scholars: “His writings were blessed because of his righteous intention, for he was among the godly scholars, devoted to worship and ascetic practice, and content with little.”
He also said in The Biographical Classes of Quran Exegetes: “He was an imam in exegesis, an imam in hadith, and an imam in jurisprudence.”
Ibn Kathir said in The Beginning and the End: “He was the foremost scholar of his age, devout, scrupulous, ascetic, worshipful, and righteous.”
Ibn Khallikan said in The Deaths of Notable Men: “The jurist, the Shafiʿi, the hadith scholar, and the exegete—he was an ocean of knowledge.”